NAMES OR CATEGORIES OF PLACES IN TUNISIA
Terry King / Dorsaf Kouki 09/22/05 1.03 Tunisian Studies: Please email additional terms we should add!
AIN (AYN) - spring
BAB - gate or door
BARBARY European term for North Africa in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries
BARRAGE - Dam
BERBERS Nomadic native inhabitants of Morocco, and still the majority of the population. Also in Tunisia.
BIR - Well (Arabic) water hole; well
BORJ - Fort, usually on top of hills, and facing the sea or any place from which enemies would come
CHOTT - Salt / dried lake, fed by rain in the winter, dried in the summer
(like Chott jerid, between Tozeur and Douz)
CIRQUE - A steep-walled horseshoe-shaped recess high on a mountain
DAR - house or palace
ERG - sand dune
FORET - Forest
FOUM - Valley
GOUR - A hole or well in a river bed
HAMADET - Rock Desert
HENCHIR - Plantation
JEBEL - Mountain. A DJEBALI is someone from the mountains
KAF (KEF) - Cliff
KASBAH - Palace centre and/or fortress of an Arab town
KSAR - Ksar / plu: Ksours: A ksar is a village made of combined storage/housing buildings once common among the oasis populations of the Maghreb (northern Africa.) Ksars are situated mostly on the peaks of small mountains to make defense easier. "Ksar" is dialectal Arabic in origin; the Berber equivalent of the word is agherm.
MAAHAL - (Arabic) encampment; group of tents
MAGHREB - "West" in Arabic, used for the North African countries
MEDINA - literally, "city", now used for the original Arab part of any town
OUED - Oued (in Tunisia) / Wadi (in the Middle East): river
PISTE - unsurfaced road or track, suitable for 4x4
RASS - (Arabic) head; peak; summit of mountain
RIBAT - Fort
SALINES - Salt Area
SAHEL - The Sahel (from Arabic sahil for shore or border)
The border between the desert and arable land, the Ocean Shoreline
SEBKHET - Salt Lake
SIDI - Saint or Marabout. A holy man, and his place of burial. Tombs, usually whitewashed domes
SOUR - rampart, usually around medinas (Islamic cities).
TELL - (Hebrew and Arabic) artificial hillock formed by the ruins of settlements, earth and sand that
have accumulated over time
THAMILA - (Arabic) water hole
WADI - (Arabic) river bed that is dry for a good part of the year
Terry King / Dorsaf Kouki 09/22/05 1.03 Tunisian Studies: Please email additional terms we should add!
AIN (AYN) - spring
BAB - gate or door
BARBARY European term for North Africa in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries
BARRAGE - Dam
BERBERS Nomadic native inhabitants of Morocco, and still the majority of the population. Also in Tunisia.
BIR - Well (Arabic) water hole; well
BORJ - Fort, usually on top of hills, and facing the sea or any place from which enemies would come
CHOTT - Salt / dried lake, fed by rain in the winter, dried in the summer
(like Chott jerid, between Tozeur and Douz)
CIRQUE - A steep-walled horseshoe-shaped recess high on a mountain
DAR - house or palace
ERG - sand dune
FORET - Forest
FOUM - Valley
GOUR - A hole or well in a river bed
HAMADET - Rock Desert
HENCHIR - Plantation
JEBEL - Mountain. A DJEBALI is someone from the mountains
KAF (KEF) - Cliff
KASBAH - Palace centre and/or fortress of an Arab town
KSAR - Ksar / plu: Ksours: A ksar is a village made of combined storage/housing buildings once common among the oasis populations of the Maghreb (northern Africa.) Ksars are situated mostly on the peaks of small mountains to make defense easier. "Ksar" is dialectal Arabic in origin; the Berber equivalent of the word is agherm.
MAAHAL - (Arabic) encampment; group of tents
MAGHREB - "West" in Arabic, used for the North African countries
MEDINA - literally, "city", now used for the original Arab part of any town
OUED - Oued (in Tunisia) / Wadi (in the Middle East): river
PISTE - unsurfaced road or track, suitable for 4x4
RASS - (Arabic) head; peak; summit of mountain
RIBAT - Fort
SALINES - Salt Area
SAHEL - The Sahel (from Arabic sahil for shore or border)
The border between the desert and arable land, the Ocean Shoreline
SEBKHET - Salt Lake
SIDI - Saint or Marabout. A holy man, and his place of burial. Tombs, usually whitewashed domes
SOUR - rampart, usually around medinas (Islamic cities).
TELL - (Hebrew and Arabic) artificial hillock formed by the ruins of settlements, earth and sand that
have accumulated over time
THAMILA - (Arabic) water hole
WADI - (Arabic) river bed that is dry for a good part of the year